Cooper asked Stewart to join him and Brasseur in Bahrain, and together the three began creating Task Force 59. They looked at autonomous systems already in use in other places around the world, e.g. collect climate data or to monitor offshore oil platforms. – and concluded that leasing and modifying this equipment would cost a fraction of what the Navy normally spent on new ships. Task Force 59 would then use AI-based software to put the pieces together. “If new unmanned systems can operate in these complex waters,” Cooper told me, “we believe they can be expanded to other U.S. Navy fleets.”
As they established the new task force, these waters became more and more complex. In the early hours of July 29, 2021, an oil tanker called Mercer Street was heading north along the coast of Oman, en route from Tanzania to the United Arab Emirates, when two black V-shaped drones appeared on the horizon, scanning the clear sky before exploding in the Wed. A day later, after the crew picked up some debris from the water and reported the incident, a third drone dive-bombed the roof of the ship’s control room, this time detonating an explosive that tore the structure apart, killing two members of its crew. . Investigators concluded that three Iranian-made “suicide drones” were to blame.
The main threat in Stewart’s mind was China. “My goal is to offer cheap or cheaper products very quickly – within five years – to send a deterrent message,” he says. But China is also, of course, investing substantially in military autonomy. A Georgetown University report released in 2021 found that the People’s Liberation Army spends more than $1.6 billion on technology each year, roughly the same level as the United States. The report also notes that autonomous ships similar to those used by Task Force 59 are a major priority for the Chinese navy. He has already developed a clone of Sea Hunteras well as what would be a large drone mothership.
However, Stewart had not noticed much interest in his work until Russia invaded Ukraine. “People call me and say, ‘You know that standalone thing you were talking about? OK, tell me more,'” he said. Like the sailors and officials I met in Bahrain, he would not comment specifically on the situation — not on the drone attack -boat from Sevastopol this is not the $800 million aid package the United States sent to Ukraine last spring, which included an unspecified number of “unmanned coastal defense vessels” ;it is not about of Ukraine’s work to develop fully autonomous killer drones. All Stewart would say is this: “The timeline is definitely changing.”
I am in San Diego, California, the main port of the US Pacific Fleet, where defense startups are sprouting like barnacles. Right in front of me, in a large glass building surrounded by palm trees, is the headquarters of Shield AI. Stewart encouraged me to visit the company that makes the V-BAT, an aerial drone that Task Force 59 is experimenting with in the Persian Gulf. Although strange in appearance (shaped like an upside-down T, with wings and a single propeller at the bottom), it is an impressive piece of hardware, small and light enough that a team of two can launch it from virtually anywhere. But it’s the V-BAT’s software, an AI driver called Hivemind, that I came to see.
I walk through the company’s gleaming white offices, past engineers playing with drone bits and lines of code, to a small conference room. There, on a big screen, I watch three V-BATS embark on a simulated mission in the California desert. A forest fire is raging somewhere nearby and their task is to find it. The plane takes off vertically from the ground, then tilts forward and flies off in different directions. After a few minutes, one of the drones locates the fire, then relays the information to its cohorts. They adjust their flight and approach the fire to map its entire extent.
